The elections are being held for seven seats from Maharashtra and 287 elected members of the Legislative Assembly form the electoral college.

In Bihar, senior BJP leaders C.P. Thakur and R.K. Sinha filed their nomination papers. Mr. Thakur is a sitting Rajya Sabha member, and also the BJP’s national vice president.

The party re-nominated Mr.Thakur, and named R.K. Sinha - who worked with former party chief Nitin Gadkari in the Delhi assembly polls - as another candidate for the Rajya Sabha which has five seats from the state up for elections this time.

Incumbent member to the Rajya Sabha from Meghalaya, Wansuk Syiem, filed her nomination papers and looked forward to her second term in office.

Ms. Syiem became the first woman MP from the state to be elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha in April last year after T. A Sangma resigned and contested unsuccessfully in the Assembly elections.

BJP vice president Prabhat Jha and former Union minister and party leader Satya Narayan Jatiya filed nominations from Madhya Pradesh.